Solitary Confinement Research Paper

Solitary Confinement: A Sentence Worse Than Death
A Centuries Old Issue: Solitary confinement is more of an everyday occurrence in the United States as opposed to many other European countries such as the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom places 0.1% of its inmates in confinement whereas the United States places 1.8% of its prison population into confinement (Idalsky). Solitary confinement is a more secure area within a prison. The concept of confinement originated in Philadelphia in 1829 and was later elaborated upon in 1934 when Alcatraz was opened in San Francisco Bay (Orso). Solitary confinement is known to be where all of the unstable, violent, prisoners are locked up, but research has shown that not everyone in confinement deserves
to be placed in there. Many of the inmates are placed in solitary confinement due to overcrowding in the general prison population. More often than not, individuals in confinement have not yet been convicted; in even worse scenarios some of the inmates are teenagers.
Solitary confinement should be modified to the point where it is effective and beneficial to society. As of now, healthy individuals who enter confinement leave in a much worse state of mind than when they previously entered. If adequate care was given to the solitary confinement inmates, the chances of them being able to return to society in a healthy renewed state of mind would increase. Furthermore, the newly released inmates would also be able to get a job and start contributing to society in a positive manner. From an economic perspective, prisons would save thousands of dollars by moving the confined inmates to general population since better care would be provided and the chances for reform will be even greater (NPR).

Psychologically Damaging:
Solitary confinement is used to separate threatening inmates from the general population.
These inmates might have a deeper reason for their violence and putting them alone in a cell is a negligent way to deal with these potential psychological issues since 64 percent of prisoners have a mental illness going into prison and 79 percent of inmates come out of solitary confinement with a worse mental state than when entered (Grassian). Lack of social interaction leads to mental side effects because positive social interaction helps the brain remain healthy and also activates important factors that promote brain cell growth. Without social interactions certain brain cells die away and can seriously harm the mental state of an individual (Palermo). Inmates with a pre-existing mental illness are impacted even more; the lack of meaningful social contact, stress and unstructured days can significantly worsen the symptoms of any mental illness (Fellner). If all prisoners were given the mental and physical attention that they need, then the prisons would not even have a need for solitary confinement. Mentally healthy inmates are far less likely to cause issues or misbehave, and putting prisoners in solitary confinement will only make any issues that they are causing much worse; therefore, making any form of solitary confinement inefficient and a waste of time and money. Other factors can impact an inmate's dangerousness. Research shows that inmates left in solitary confinement experience increased anger (Haney). This anger can lead to the mind of criminality that society is looking to prevent. Perhaps more troubling, though, is the research that suggests that solitary confinement causes a breakdown in impulse control for those who are left there for an extended period of time (Lovell). The inability to control one's emotions and actions seem like a perfect admixture for future danger. Solitary confinement is regarded as a form of psychological torture. The International Red
Cross has conveyed its concern of ‘significant problems’ with U.S. confinement methods, and U.S. prison policies have faced accumulating legal challenges. America's detention system is far below the basic minimum standards for treatment of prisoners under multinational law - leading Craig Haney, a professor of psychology at UC Santa Cruz, to testify in support of Ashker v Brown: “units are virtual incubators of psychoses—seeding illness in otherwise healthy inmates and exacerbating illness in those already suffering from mental infirmities."